Madytos (Colony)

Madytos (Ancient Greek: ) (or Maitos, or Madyta, Gr. Μάδυτος), by the modern town of Eceabat in Turkey) was an ancient Greek^[1] city and port of Thrace , located in the region of the Thracian Chersonesos (Thracian Peninsula). The city was a colony of Aeolians ( a Greek tribe) from Lesbos who, according to the ancient authors, founded also Sestos and Alopekonessos and other cities of the Hellespont ^[2][3]. This was part of the Greek colonization movement of the 8th-7th c. BC. Later more colonists came from the Greek Ionian cities of Miletus and Klazomenae. Archaeological evidence also supports Aeolian or possibly Athenian origin of colonists ^[4]. Madytos is referred by Herodotus in relation to the Persian Wars ^[5], and by Thucidides in relation to the Battle of the Eurymedon.

Madytos was an active commercial port during the Byzantine period and the Middle Age ^[6]. It was occupied by the Osman Turks in the 15th century. The city continued to have a mainly Greek population till 1920's when, after the Treaty of Lausanne and the exchange of population between Greece and Turkey, most of the Greeks moved to Greece.

See also

• Greek colonies in Thrace

References

1. ^ An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis: An Investigation Conducted by The Copenhagen Polis Centre for the Danish National Research Foundation by Mogens Herman Hansen,2004, p. 1019. Available online http://books.google.gr/books?id=22jupg3FqdYC&pg=PA1019&lpg=PA1019&dq=madytos+coinage&source=bl&ots=WJAO9OlCId&sig=HCrmG0sW_yWO7-PusJVXGzgrGGw&hl=el&ei=9C5ZTLHoOMyJOLK4ifYI&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CDoQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=madytos%20coinage&f=false
2. ^ Pseudo-Scymnus (705-10), see: Scymni Chii Periegesis. Edition S.G. Teubner, 1846, Lipsiae. P. 40, available online http://my.qoop.com/google/mM2tt4TSVOQC/
3. ^ Benjamin H. Isaac (1986) The Greek settlements in Thrace until the Macedonian conquest, Ed. E.J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands, p 161, available online http://books.google.gr/books?id=LcfLKHVi2UUC&pg=PA161&lpg=PA161&dq=madyto+archaeology&source=bl&ots=xw6jxkr8m3&sig=YadikrxG4_mHR1qfljuUgS51r_o&hl=el&ei=khtZTPmzMsjvOaia-JQJ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CC0Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false
4. ^ Loukopoulou L. (2004) Thracian Chersonesos, in M. H. Hansen & T. H. Nielsen, Eds. (2004) An inventory of archaic and classical poleis, Oxford University Press, p. 900. Available online http://books.google.gr/books?id=22jupg3FqdYC&pg=PA885&lpg=PA885&dq=hansen+nilsen+Thracian&source=bl&ots=WJAP5PlKNm&sig=8RGXq8z0nzOmesSO6pN8y6MCOvw&hl=en&ei=H4FiTLegKNDgOO_b3fgD&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
5. ^ Herodotus of Halikarnassus, The Histories, Book 7 (Polymnia), 30, Online http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hh/hh7030.htm
6. ^ W. Heyd (1885) Histoire du commerce du Levant au Moyen-Age, Ed. Emile Lechevauer, Paris, 1885, p. 284

Coordinates: 40°11′02″N 26°21′23″E / 40.183889°N 26.356389°E / 40.183889; 26.356389